


Weakness

by Yatzstar



Series: Peni and Noir [5]
Category: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: Crayons, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Nazis, Noir is a good dad, he tries his best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-01 07:49:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18796072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yatzstar/pseuds/Yatzstar
Summary: To love is to have weakness, a reality Noir has not yet become comfortable with.





	Weakness

_Peni: @Noir_

_Peni: @Noir_

_Peni: @Noir_

_Noir: Yes?_

_Peni: I’m bored, can I come over? ^-^_

_Noir: Sorry, doll. I got some goons on me. It’s best if you stay home._

_Peni: Can I help?_

_Noir: I’m fine, I promise. It’s just not safe right now, so I can’t be having visitors._

_Peni: Are you sure?_

_Noir: Yes. I’ll see you soon. Talk to you later._

Peni frowned as Noir’s status symbol switched from green to red, signaling he had closed their communications. He had likely gone out on a mission of some sort. She glanced over at the colorful box of crayons sitting on the bedside table, waiting to be delivered to their prospective owner.

“I don’t think he would mind if I dropped these off while he’s gone,” she said aloud.

 ** _He said it is not safe, friend,_** her Spider said. _**Maybe it is better you do not.**_

“I’ll only be there for a minute,” Peni said, warming up to the idea. “Besides, he’s been talking about wanting these for so long. You can stay here if you want.”

_**Where you go, I follow.** _

“Alright!” Peni bounced off her bed, snatching up the crayons as her mech rumbled to life at Spider’s command. It took a few minutes for her to prepare everything for the jump, using her dimensional transporter to put a mask over her and Sp//dr, turning them monochrome and removing every bit of color from them both. When she was ready, she climbed into the mech, the crayons a bright spot amidst the now dreary color scheme.

“Ready?” she called to Spider.

_**Ready.** _

She hit the button to jump, and her stomach dropped in the freefall feeling as light flashed around them. In a matter of seconds, Sp//dr was sitting in the middle of Noir’s office. The man himself was nowhere to be seen as expected, the room left in a neat array.

Peni hopped from the mech, fully intending on depositing the crayons on the desk and leaving, until her Spider-Sense alerted her, screaming

DANGER

She looked over in the direction the Sense indicated, towards the door that led into Noir’s living quarters. The door was ajar, and she caught a glimpse of a shadow moving beyond it.

“Noir…?” she called out apprehensively, though she had a sinking feeling it wasn’t him. At the sound of her voice, the shadow froze.

 ** _It is not him_** , Spider whispered.

She jumped backwards, Sp//dr opening to receive her as footsteps thundered towards the door. It flew open, and several men that were most definitely not Noir charged through bearing tommy guns. They paused at the sight of the strange machine, giving her enough time to enclose herself and prepare the weapons.

“Shoot it!” one of the men bellowed as Sp//dr stood to the fullest height it could in the room.

A hail of bullets met Sp//dr as it charged forward, the men jumping out of the way of the mechanical limbs. Peni reached out and grabbed one man, throwing him against the wall. More bullets hit her from behind, and she turned, swinging an arm out at them. She clipped one of the men across the head, sending him to the floor. There were only three left, but they seemed intent on shooting her down, though the bullets did little to compromise her mech.

At that moment, her Spider-Sense went off again, but this time it was not danger. It was the presence of another Spider, bearing comfort and protection.

Noir.

Peni turned in her mech to look just as Noir flew through the window, shooting webs from both hands and catching two of the three remaining men. He landed on the floor and pulled with all his might, swinging them to smash against the wall as if they weighed nothing. The final man took aim at Noir, but Peni stepped in, wrenching the gun from his grasp and crumpling it in the claws of her mech. Noir turned and punched man square in the face, laying him out cold.

Peni let out a sigh of relief and slumped down in her seat, her heart still racing. Noir hastily webbed up all the bodies and tossed them out the window, attaching them to the street lamps for the police to find. When he turned his attention to her, she sat up, ready to greet him until he cut her off.

“What are you doin’ here?” he growled, his tone low and angry as he pulled off his hat mask, his face set in a deep scowl.

Peni hopped out of Sp//dr, the crayons clutched to her chest. Her happiness at seeing him started to turn to apprehension as she realized his anger was now directed towards her. “Er, I just wanted to drop these off.”

“I thought I told you to stay away!”

Peni winced as his tone rose slightly. She hadn’t expected him to get this angry, if at all. “Well, I thought I’d only be here for a moment.”

“You shouldn’t have come at all!” Noir hissed. “It doesn’t matter how long you thought you’d be here, you should have listened to me!”

“Well it’s a good thing I did!” Peni retorted, off-put and confused by his anger. “Those men were in your house.”

Noir let out a frustrated sigh. “I knew they were in my house, which is why I told you not to come! They were lookin’ for me, and I knew they’d be in my house. I was just about to clear ‘em out before you showed up.”

“I don’t see what the big deal is,” Peni mumbled, having a hard time meeting his accusing gaze. “I handled them just fine.”

“Well, it’s not about what happened but what could’ve happened,” Noir snapped, pressing his knuckles hard against his desk. “What if you had shown up without your machine? What then? Those were Nazis, Peni, and if they didn’t kill you they’d take you and torture you.”

Peni stared hard at the colorless floorboards, unable to form a response.

“I know Nazis are some far-off bad dream to you, but they’re my reality. They’ve been hunting me for years, and if they got their claws on you and somehow figured out you know me, they’d use you to get to me and kill us both. They show no mercy. It wouldn’t matter to them that you’re just a kid, they’ll kill anyone who stands in their way.”

Peni swallowed, a lump forming in her throat as his reasoning began to come clear to her.

“That’s why I told you to stay home, but you just up and disobeyed me,” Noir said furiously. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed!”

Peni couldn’t bear to look at him. He had never been this harsh with her before, and it scared her. She feared she had lost his love forever.

“Get out of here,” he said, his voice now no more than a fierce whisper. “Now.”

She turned and fled, the crayons dropping to the floor as her tears spilled over. In a flash she disappeared, leaving Noir alone in the battle-torn room. He let out a shaky breath and leaned hard against his desk. He had been terrified the moment he sensed Peni’s presence in his apartment, not knowing whether or not she was even prepared to confront them. That coupled with his anger that she had deliberately gone against his wishes made for a combination of emotion he was not used to feeling.

He sighed deeply as his eyes were drawn to the one bright spot in the room, the pack of crayons. She had been talking about them for days, and he had been eager to receive them, but only at a time when he was absolutely certain it was safe for her to come. He bent and picked them up, exasperation flooding through him.

“Why couldn’t you have waited just a little longer?” he growled to himself.

As the haze of fearful anger began to dissipate, he thought back over the things he had said and how harsh he had been. A faint feeling of guilt worked its way into his mind; he didn’t want to make her cry. He laid the crayons gently on the desk and resolved to speak to her once he had cooled down completely.

 

Peni lay curled up in her bed beneath her blankets, her Spider by her side. She felt miserable and scared, consumed with the thought that she had lost her only source of comfort and protection.

“I didn’t mean to make him mad!” she wailed, and Spider nuzzled her forehead.

 ** _Do not fret,_** he whispered to her _ **. He loves you more than anything, and you frightened him. He will not be angry forever.**_

“What if he is?”

_**He will return to you. You will see.** _

Eventually her sobs died into sniffles, and emotional exhaustion overcame her. She had just started to drift into sleep when she heard the familiar whoosh of a portal behind her, and her Spider-Sense tingled with the familiar sensation of Noir. She tensed but did not roll over, afraid to face him.

Noir sighed as he sighted the small figure curled amidst her pink sheets and matching pillows. Lights blinked from every corner of the room, combining the look of a highly advanced technical lab with a girl’s bedroom.

“Hey, kid,” he said gently, removing his hat and turning it in his hands.

She shifted slightly but did not reply, her heart pounding in her head.

Seeing she was upset and likely didn’t want to engage in a conversation, he sat down on the edge of her bed, facing away from her. He pulled off his mask and fished his glasses out of his pocket, setting them on his nose.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you like I did,” he murmured. “I get it if you’re upset, but you really scared me; I was afraid I was gonna lose you to those monsters.” He paused for a response, but received none, so he continued.  “Maybe I shouldn’t have been as hard in the way I said it but what I told you is true. When I say to stay away I really mean it. There’s no tellin’ what you could get mixed up in, and I don’t want that for you.”

The bed shifted slightly, and he knew she was listening at least.

“Truth is, I’m not used to lovin’ someone as much as I love you. Before I met you and the others, I was alone. I never let myself get attached to anyone because I knew having attachments as Spider-Man would only be a weakness. That being said, I wouldn’t trade you for the world, but I’m not used to carin’ about someone so much.”

His words trailed away as a small pair of arms wrapped around his middle, a slight weight resting against his back. He smiled slightly and rested his hand over Peni’s.

“That’s why I got so worked up,” he said quietly. “I was so scared I’d lose you.”

She sighed shakily as she thought over what he had said. It made sense to her now, why he had reacted the way he did. She hadn’t thought that she would be potentially jeopardizing herself or that he would be so terrified of losing her, and it made her feel even more guilty.

“Are you mad at me?” she asked, her voice barely audible.

He reached around and drew her into his arms, holding her tight. “No, not anymore. I was mad that you put yourself in a dangerous situation, but I couldn’t stay that way for long.”

“I won’t do it again,” she sniffed. “I thought you wouldn’t love me anymore.”

Noir almost laughed outright at that. “There’s nothin’ in this world that would stop me from lovin’ you, darlin’.”

“I just wanted you to have the crayons,” Peni mumbled.

“Crayons aren’t worth jack compared to you,” Noir said. “I’d rather never get ‘em if it means you’d be safe. Those Nazis have spent years tryin’ to find my weakness and I’d hate for ‘em to get their claws on her.”

Peni looked up at him. “I’m sorry.”

He smiled back at her reassuringly. “It’s okay, doll. Just listen to me next time, alright?”

Peni returned his smile, a sight that never failed to lift his mood. “Alright.”

“Good.” He kissed her head the top of her head and pulled the box of crayons from his coat pocket. “Now, I’ve been waiting to put these to good use. Want to help me?”

“Yeah! Can we get ice cream too?”

Noir frowned. “I don’t know, I got you ice cream last time.”

“Please?” she asked, clinging to his arm and giving her eyes an extra sparkle.

“Fine,” he sighed, unable to resist.

“I like being your weakness,” she giggled.

He gave her an attempt at a stern look, but it fell flat as she giggled louder. “I knew I was gonna regret sayin’ that.”

“Don’t,” she said, squeezing him in a hug. “Now I know just how much you love me.”

Noir smiled and squeezed her back. “That’s all I ever wanted you to know. Though I gotta get used to it, you’ll always be my weakness.”


End file.
